The Good, The Bad, The Weird Review

 The Good, The Bad , The Weird

Director: Kim Jee-Woon

Stars: Kang-ho Song, Byung-hun Lee & Woo-sung Jung.

Running Time: 124 mins.

Release: 17 July 2008

In 1930's Manchuria a bounty hunter,the Good: Park Do-won (Jung), a leader of a gang of ruthless outlaws The Bad: Park Chang-yi (Lee) and a lone outlaw The Weird: Yoon Tae-goo (Song) who ruthlessly pursuit each other to gain possession of treasure map but the Japanese Army and Chinese Bandits are after it too. This film is incredibly fun and a absolute thrill ride throughout and easily one of the best action adventure films i've seen and it mixes elements of Indiana Jones and Spaghetti Westerns brilliantly.

I've only really heard of Kang-ho Song and he plays my favourite character in the film so i'll leave him till last.

Personally I felt The Good (Jung) character was a little flat compared to the other two characters there seemed to be not much too him, I know there's different versions of the film so there many of been more depth to him in them than in the version I saw. I will say like the others he does change somewhat throughout the film. His mission at first at the beginning of the film is to capture The Bad and claim his bounty alive or dead, he becomes entangled in the chase of the map whilst chasing his prey. He does not believe in the existence of the treasure, at first. But does dream what he could do with it and gradually gets interested in the idea

He's brave, courageous, headstrong and really intelligent,realist, quick witted and knows how to play his hand in any scenario and his favourite weapon is an old fashioned Double Barrelled Shotgun and a Marlin Model 1894 and he only uses a Smith & Wesson Model 1917 towards the end of the film. He also forms a temporary partnership with The Weird at The Ghost Market which is absolutely phenomenal and in some parts hilarious more on that later. He is really good in the role as the straight laced bounty hunter.

Byung-hun Lee plays The Bad, he has a lot of screen-time like The Weird. You may know him from I Saw The Devil and GI Joe films he's a fantastic in this and really excels in many of the action scenes. As he's The Bad he's cold. calculated, remorseless, vicious, brutal and a bad-ass and has a really dark sense of humour with no loyalty at all, he also likes a bit of stiff drink drink. It's evident that he's the bad as he's all clad in black and has a emo-ish haircut with a scar on the side of his face. His favourite firearm which uses for the most of the film is a Webley Mk IV he also uses a Lanchester Mk.1in one iconic scene and a Mauser M1908.

As the events of the film go on he takes more and more risks. He's after The Weird as he initially stole the map that intended to steal in the first place and acts like a child when he hears someone say that The Weird is better than him and he feels he has to prove himself to his henchman especially in two scenes one's more gruesome than the other.

Kang-ho Song plays the Weird my absolute favourite character as he's the most likeable and sympathetic of the three, at first your not sure what to make of him in the first scene but shortly afterwards he warms on you and I have to say he's the most comedic of the three of which i'll get into later. He's quick, sly, brave, intelligent and sometimes a fool but absolutely loveable. He's great in Thirst but even better in this film I am really keen to see Snowpiecer which he's in.

Unlike the other two characters he seems to have a moral code as he does not hurt women or kids as you'll see in the film. For a (mostly) serious actor he does incredibly well in the comedic role as the Weird and he's created such an iconic character with his distinctive look of a flight jacket and flight cap with goggles and wielding two Walther P38's throughout the film. Of the three he reminds me most of Indiana Jones as gets himself into a lot of scrapes. He also kills two people in a incredibly funny way.

The brief partnership that Good and Weird form in Ghost Market is absolutely brilliant and a joy to watch as they work together. Whilst the Good swings above the roof tops blasting enemies with his Marlin whilst Weird fights on the ground level of the town in one absolutely brilliant scene he uses a diving helmet it's awesome.

Also special mention to Chang-sook Ryu who plays Weird's grandmother who sleeps through a shoot-out that rips through her home ! And Seung-su Ryu who plays Man-gil who plays the Weird's cousin.

I have to the stunt work in this film is absolutely brilliant it's up there with Indiana Jones films with them they are fantastic and how Jee-Woon has done a cracking job capturing it all especially all the scenes in Ghost Market, the train and the last half an hour phenomenal work, there's only a little bit of CGI used in this film and that's only to enhance the stunt work which is a-okay with me. The whole film feels like one big action set piece and I absolutely loved every minute of it.

The film looks incredibly dazzling and vibrant using only a few locales ,despite all the violence which is all in good fun and it's shot beautifully & there's some very inventive over the shoulder shots and PoV shots used from the outset it really sets the tone for the film as a whole and the stunts are brilliantly shot. The shots towards the end mimic that of a very famous spaghetti western, that's not to say there's not more but there's plenty of them that is.

For the time period that it's set in it's very authentic and there's only a small problem with some of the shoes that some of the characters wear also the weapons I love the fire-arms that are used in this film, I must say I prefer the look of older weapons than newer ones.

The score in this film is absolutely phenomenal and it's done by the virtually unknown Dalparan and Yeong-gyu Jang they have done a simply amazing soundtrack that evokes the mood of spaghetti western with the twang of guitars and the sound of horns I was really impressed and I must shortly after the film I wanted to get the soundtrack but alas it's far too expensive and not on Itunes it's a fantastic score.

This film is absolutely outstanding that's all I can say it's near nigh perfect on all fronts and if your looking for a brilliant action adventure film you could not find much better than this it has everything you could ask for I would love to see some more old school pulp films like this one.